First person to survive drop over Niagara Falls

On 24 October 1901, American schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to survive the 51-metre drop over New York’s Niagara Falls when she plummeted over Horseshoe Falls – the largest of the three Niagara waterfalls – in a barrel. A crowd stood at the foot of the falls to witness her attempt, many convinced she was facing certain death. However, she emerged – battered and bruised, but alive. The feat was made all the more impressive by the fact that Taylor was 63 years of age at the time.